Cath

The Cradle

With the gauntlet well and truly laid down, the newly formed battle groups set off in different directions.

The Tindrel planetoid capital ship quickly began charging toward the asteroid belt where their objective was located. Instead of using FTL to jump straight into the battle, it used powerful sub-light drives to gradually build up unstoppable momentum. A helical formation of Human, Rothian and QV ships orbited around it.

The enemy fleet currently besieging the densely packed asteroid belt and factory complex quickly picked up on the incoming hostiles. There were many more individual enemy ships than the joint battle group, but they were spread out across a large area. Closest to their approach were three battleships and a carrier. The battleships launched dozens of plasma torpedoes with bright blue trails. The carrier turned to face the aggressors and fired its primary energy projector, sending a long stream of plasma through space to burn through any ship it touched.

The QV supercarrier adopted an entirely different approach. Its target was surrounding an enormous ring-like installation, the surroundings of which were relatively open. The QV battle group jumped to maximum firing range as a stationary mass of weaponry, then unleashed a barrage of energy projections and plasma torpedoes before the enemy fleet had a chance to bring their own guns to bear.

The gas giant was obviously of strategic value to the invaders. In addition to glassing settlements on its largest moon, they were deploying dozens of orbital rail cannons around the other three moons. They all opened fire the minute the Rothian battle group appeared in range.

The central grouping of enemy forces was staggering. A dozen troop landers were supported by two dozen cruisers and even more smaller ships. The centrepiece was a vast circular command ship, which began launching drone bombers by the dozen.

The Cradle

Upon getting their orders, the Tindrel and Qalian-Vosh immediately started complaining.

"This objective is not worthy of the might our fleet brings to bear."

“You’ll never be able to hold off two fleets at once!”

“That large object could be their central command node. Destroying that might fold their entire force!”

“We are spread rather thin, Admiral Matir. Not much margin for error.” Admiral Stentz added, as the Outreman cruisers assumed a helical formation around each of the core ships and support elements.

---

Aboard the Magnificent Horizon, the science team waited eagerly by their equipment. Freyr stood on a raised platform where she could see almost everything. “Give me topography on Psi-Helios as soon as you can.” She ordered.

“Yes ma’am.”

Dr Lang looked over at Vreta, who usually seemed to be nearby.

“How are you feeling?”

The Cradle

“Anyone have room for batteries?” Carthage asked, holding up two of the standard size weapon chargers in one hand and looking around.

“I can take some more.” Athena called out. She had been making last minute adjustments to the new chain-feed system for her railgun, to ensure it didn’t interfere when she transitioned between long range and scattershot modes.

Carthage threw the batteries underarm across the room to her partner.

“An army from the depths of Tartarus can’t stop this.” Kjartan growled gleefully, cycling his new heavy rotary plasma repeater. The barrel whirred and fizzed, too fast for the eye to see. He still wore a physical shield in its smallest form on his left arm, so he could easily switch between LMG and his close range weaponry.

“Sacred Band, let's move out.” Thebes eventually barked, magnetically attaching his carbine to the back of his suit.

They clanked out of the equipment room and towards a key junction within the ship, where they could rapidly respond to any boarding action.

---

The massive Outreman fleet jumped into space on the outskirts of the Psi-Helios system as one coordinated unit. Little bastards up front, big ones in back. They immediately began scanning the area while moving to the rallypoint.

The whole area was scattered with large asteroids which muddied the picture. However, a first sweep suggested that enemy fleets were arranged around one half of the system’s curved perimeter, and their joint exercise fleet had jumped in behind them. The fleet closest to the middle appeared to contain something larger than anything the good guys had brought. A weapons platform or an FOB perhaps?

Forward elements from these enemy fleets were already overpowering a hopelessly outnumbered but incredibly brave peacekeeper contingent. The Barbarossa picked up mayday beacons from a huge floating factory complex which sprawled across another nearby asteroid field. It also detected an evacuation in need of urgent assistance taking place on a ring shaped space station orbiting the last of five planets around the system’s red giant star.

The Cradle

Captain Andersen stood at ease on the bridge of the Barbarossa, both hands clasped behind her back. She surveyed the map table hologram’s limited tactical information about the Psi-Helios system. Their long-range scanners could only pick up so much - they would have to perform an emergency sweep once they pulled out of light speed to assess the true nature of the situation. What they did have were five rough shapes to denote potential enemy fleet positions around the circumference of the solar system.

Also appearing to scan the same map table (although they were really looking at their own) was the hologram of Admiral Stentz of the supercarrier OSC Cataphract. He had overall command of the Outreman fleet, as well as the largest Outreman ship they had brought. It wasn't as new or deadly-per-tonne as the Barbarossa, but it was still a fearsome warship. Also present were captains for the three other capital ships in the Human fleet. They were spread between all five battle groups between them, and would be responsible for controlling all Outreman elements within that composite team.

The last two people that Andersen could see were the Barbarossa’s AI, Nelson, and Lord High Admiral Hale. He was being beamed in with a significant time delay from Outremer as he’d personally expressed an interest in being included. He was one of their civilisation’s most experienced Naval officers, after all.

“Can we jump in all together, then split up once we have more situational awareness?” Andersen asked.

“The exercise brief states that a rapid response is needed to counter all five elements at once, before they can complete their objectives in the system.” Nelson’s small blue avatar offered from his position on the map table.

“Then we assume a helical formation to start, to cover more vectors.” Stentz boomed.

---

The science vessel was a hive of activity, with people making last minute preparations for the expedition. In one equipment room, the Sacred Band and Void Company were putting on their suits and tooling up with a cacophony of satisfying metal clicks and bangs. The exercise parameters were clear that ship boarding and combat was not off the table, so the teams were getting ready for all eventualities.

Of course, it was unlikely that the exercise planners had anything too disruptive in mind for their vessel. They would know that the ship had an ulterior mission which required most of their attention. The Sacred Band were in actuality preparing for the possibility of being deployed on solid ground.

The Cradle

The QV fleet was initially composed of one enormous, amorphous, slightly translucent floating blob in space. Their ships were essentially heavily armed and armoured versions of their individual mobility suits, with large engines and shields. The component parts could split off and rejoin the mothership at will. Each ship was girded with an elegant superstructure of blackened alloy, in which some of the most critical elements could be protected. When the whole thing was put together, the insides looked like a bafflingly complex and ancient coral reef.

It was always difficult to get a full count of their fleet, but previous intelligence indicated that a mothership contained three large battleships that shared the superstructure's devastating main gun, along with dozens of destroyers and potentially hundreds of fighters.

The Tindrel fleet’s capital ship was built into an actual asteroid. As a species they were keen space-excavators, and used the hollowed out husks of the best specimens as a tour de force of their navy. The remnants of this particular planetoid presented as a giant semi-sphere of craggy rock about 10 miles wide. It was pockmarked with sensory stations and armaments and the Tindrel had painted a scary Tindrel face across it.

Protruding out from the hollow insides was a bright double helix structure which housed the engines, shield generators, hangar bays and almost an entire city of support staff. Docked on this double helix were dozens of frigates and hundreds of fighters.

The Cradle

“You are not mistaken. Science is what these ones are here for. Right, friend?” Gazes soothed, jumping out of its chair and blobbing over to Vreta where it clung to his back like a large rucksack. Its mobility suit elongated and ran down the length of the Rothian’s tail.

Chitnarit glared at Gazes Fondly over Vreta’s shoulder, pressing up against him on her large and powerful legs. Her salivation must have presented a strong odour, and from so close the glands which secreted powerful pheromones may not have been completely filtered out by the apparatus in the room before reaching Vreta’s nervous system.

“Let's just get this over with.”

---

The Tindrel and QV science teams joined the combined Human-Rothian Expeditionary Fleet in a neutral corporate system. It was far from Psi-Helios, run by huge multi-species conglomerates that didn’t pay much mind to the crew of their vessels.

The naval executives for each civilisation had agreed to participate in a joint exercise as a pretext for arriving near the Psi-Helios system. The scenario at hand was a fragmented jump from lightspeed from multiple vectors to meet aggression from an unknown adversary. The main Human, Rothian, Tindrel and QV elements would appear outside the system and attempt to link up and form an effective formation as quickly and orderly as possible. Then, they would split into teams and simulate a variety of naval battles on the fringes of the system.

While this was happening, a variety of civilian craft would complete tasks among the various non-native structures in the system, to simulate evacuation and data destruction etc. It was at this point that the science vessel would scan the Psi-Helios system. The Earther peacekeeping force had been notified, but what they may or may not do upon commencement of these exercises was yet to be seen.

After a day or so of confirming that all parties were ready to begin, the Rothian in charge of the overall exercise would give the green light to begin.

The Cradle

For a moment, it looked like Chitnarit may have put her expansive mouth totally around Vreta’s head when he turned away. But she contented herself with loudly gnashing her fangs while he was speaking instead. She then chimed in immediately after he’d finished, talking over several scientists who studied the holo closely and had questions.

“Perhaps we should scan the filthy space casino these ones have towed into orbit. Everyone knows it is a front for some scanning equipment of their own. Maybe a command centre?” She pointed a crudely formed hand at Gazes, who violently ejected Freyr’s reconstructed coffee mug out of its mobility suit. It flew fast towards Chitnarit, through Vreta.

“What about the Tindrel slave mills hidden among the asteroid belt? They have already found something, hidden away, haven’t you?” Gazes Fondly sloshed about in its swivel chair like a bucket of chum.

Halo: Aegis Team

As the breach was so small, a traffic jam inevitably ensued as the heavier armour filtered through into the city. Soldiers on the walls began firing small arms and chucking grenades down onto the vehicles beneath. Tar’s Wraith hung back slightly and pounded the walls with blue balls of plasma. She tilted her plasma repeater as far up as it would go and sprayed the parapets, forcing some of the Sangheili there to take cover. Her shield flared as a carbine bolt pinged off the Wraith and into her face.

“Clear the gap, move!” Tar yelled, ducking back down as far as she could go into her cockpit area as her gun overheated.

The Cradle

Freyr waited patiently for everyone to assemble around the map table. It sat near the mini-Vault, with one of its giant sides acting as a wall and projection screen if needed. When everyone was quiet and attentive, she began by pulling up a hologram of the Cradle; it hung above them like a pure white sun.

“Our working hypothesis is that the Cradle was designed to store, develop and index the potential for millions of life forms - both flora and fauna. It would travel between galaxies, seeding planetary objects with these organic blueprints so that life could flourish.”

“Why?” one of the Tindrel asked.

“We don’t know for certain yet. What we do know is that we’ve recently found a life form with an apparently symbiotic relationship with the Cradle. It calls itself the Navigator, and it was badly damaged when we rescued it. Apparently, it was attacked by another synthetic called the Hegemon. Most of them managed to escape - the Cradle, the Navigator and the others all hid in different places around our galaxy.”

“Who are these ‘others’ of which you speak?” A QV scientist burbled. It had stolen a Human lab coat and was now wearing it within its mobility suit.

“Other life forms like the Navigator, presumably. The Navigator’s name suggests that together they could form some sort of ‘crew’ that can effectively operate the Cradle. Unlock its true potential.”

Freyr waved one hand, and the hologram changed to show the Cradle being orbited by four smaller tetrahedrons.

“You said ‘most’ of them escaped.” One of Freyr’s team piped up. Throwing her a slow ball - nice.

“That’s right. The Navigator seemed pretty sure that one of them was either destroyed or captured by the Hegemon.” Freyr pointed at her subordinate. One of the four tetrahedrons blew apart into a million little pixels that drifted away from each other.

“So why are we here, near one of our planets?” Gazes Fondly asked. They were curled up on a swivel chair near the map table, their mobility suit totally encompassing it. This prompted an immediate reaction.

“This planet is ours!” Chitnarit roared, rearing up on her hind legs. She began pushing through the crowd for Gazes. Freyr looked for Knossos to find him and and one of Void Company jogging to her from by the door.

The Cradle

Dr Lang nodded a few times, arms crossed across her chest and clasping her sides. “It certainly is impressive, and no I…normally don’t swim about on the job.” She watched one of the Qalian-Vosh peel off from the group and dive through the nearest bulkhead door into the water, a couple more quickly followed. They navigated up one of the tubes at high speed, their forms completely optimised for agile swimming.

“Now might be a good time for a bit of ‘Who’s Who’. Freyr pulled up the team sheets in her head and asked her implants to match names and photos with the aliens milling around the hangar bay.

“Xenobiology, astrophysics, chemical engineering, artificial intelligence…lots of skills on paper here. Some people I can't place, either.” Freyr chucked the cross referenced list she’d created to Vreta. “That QV who sucked you into its suit; I don't see a record for them.”